During operation of power generation equipment, several factors may likely lead to faults, thus causing breakdown of machinery. Customers' desire to service power generation equipment places added emphasis on the availability and reliability of the equipment to ensure that it is operational and available to meet periods of peak demand.
In land based gas turbines used for power generation, a compressor must be allowed to operate at a higher pressure ratio to achieve a higher machine efficiency. A variety of tests may be performed to maintain a gas turbine engine in an operating condition. Conventionally, a testing engineer may attach measuring instruments at several locations on a gas turbine to measure gas turbine operation parameters. The measured values are then compared with specified parameters to determine whether the gas turbine meets the specified parameters which enable it to be placed in operation.
Gas turbine parameters are often measured using a variety of instruments. These instruments are used by a field engineer to measure engine parameters. Once the readings are determined to be outside of specified parameters, the field engineer communicates with a remote engineer who is responsible for controlling the various components such as valves, pumps, switches, etc. of the gas turbine. The field operations are labor intensive as multiple engineers are required to perform routine inspection and operational activities. In order to establish communication between personnel, radio or telephone links between the engineers are also required, thus further slowing down the inspection process. Access to remote services is also slow and often not in realtime, thus adding to inefficiencies.
Telephone line connections are normally used to establish corporate intranet connections or virtual private network (VPN) type of connections. The loss of information through a telephone line does not allow immediate use of applications, that are stored at a remote server, to be used at a point of service, i.e., in the field environment. The information that is stored at the remote server would have to be up-loaded off-line after completing inspections. In addition, the inspections would have to be performed by multiple engineers communicating via telephone or radio connections. Loss of communication between the engineers is a common occurrence, especially if the engineers fail to share a common communication language. Furthermore, land line installation cycles require increased installation time when compared to a mobile satellite network which may be installed in a short period of time.
Thus, there is need to overcome the inefficiencies encountered by the prior art.